Police in Troy, N.Y. borrowed a camera from a local station and posed as a camera crew to get an armed man to release his last hostage.
Troy Police Officer William Fitch told the Albany Times-Union the suspect kept “bringing up the fact he needs to get his story out.”
“I realized in the first couple minutes, he was definitely having some sort of mental episode,” Fitch said. “I told him I was here for him, asked him what he needs, what we can do for him.”
After the suspect released one hostage as a show of good faith, the cops came up with the idea of pretending they were a camera crew to get the man to give up his last hostage.
One officer “called around, asking TV news crews to ‘get here as fast as possible.'” When WTEN answered the call, police commandeered their camera.
The suspect surrendered and released the hostages after police staged an on-camera interview with the help of a News10 photographer.
“We commandeered their camera, we made sure that it was not actually recording but that the top spotlight was on there,” Sgt. Nicholas Laviano said. “We dressed up one of our officers as a camera man and we walked up to the entrance with myself and Officer Fitch and began to, what he believed, was record him and allow him to tell his story that he wished to get out there.”
We asked Nexstar about it, but they declined to comment.